Fire dive team lends a hand
By Jeff Gallatin
Bay Village
Published August 2, 2006

Just about every safety force now has mutual aid agreements with other departments, but the Bay Village Fire Department’s dive team went a little further than normal during last week’s severe flooding.

Four members of the department’s dive team went to Eastlake July 28 to help Lake County communities deal with problems caused by the massive flooding. Three of the four ended up on the Chagrin River with an Eastlake firefighter helping search for the body of a man who was believed to have drowned as a result of  the heavy downpours which hit the area. The fourth member stayed back and helped Lake County firefighters coordinate efforts to combat the flooding.

Bay Village Fire Chief Jim Sammon said he’s pleased his department had the capability to aid their Lake County counterparts.

“Having departments go further out to help is something you’ll probably see more of  in the future,” Sammon said. “In this case, their dispatch group sent out a call for aid for departments which have a dive team and boat, which we do. So, we sent our people over to help.”

In addition, Sammon said a member of the Westshore Central Dispatch team based at St. John West Shore Hospital also went over to lend a hand.

“This is the type of situation where you send whoever you can,” Sammon said. “It also shows the regional approach of the central dispatch.”

Bay Village Fire Lt. Joe Wallenhorst said they got an early start.

“We got the call out at about 6 a.m. and we went over to the Eastlake fire station on (Route) 91 and got ready,” Wallenhorst said.

When they got to the station, Wallenhorst said the Eastlake firefighters appreciated their showing up.

“We all try to work together,” Wallenhorst said. “We’re glad to have the kind of equipment and ability when we can go out and help out someone when you have a situation like this. We might need them someday.”

He said different units went out on the area waterways while others went and helped get people out of homes, businesses and schools throughout Lake County.

“There was a lot of radio traffic and units coming and going from different locations with all the different problems going on,” Wallenhorst said.

Wallenorst went out on the Chagrin River with two Bay firefighters and an Eastlake one.

“We went with an Eastlake one who knows the waters and the community well,” Wallenhorst said. “We wanted to make sure we didn’t run into anything that we could didn’t know about.”

Once they were out on the water, Wallenhorst said it was tough.

“There was debris, the waters were strong and rough,” he said. “There was a definite need for a lot of people to be out there.”

Wallenhorst’s group didn’t find the man’s body, which ultimately was recovered later.

Sammon said the move may be a portent of future fire and rescue operations.

“This is one way of showing how some services are going more and more to regional services,” Sammon said.